Poll: Independents Prefer Charlie Sheen Over Sarah Palin for President

If this new poll isn’t the death knell to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin being a likely candidate on the 2012 Presidential ticket, then it certainly means GOP conservatives who are opposed to her are going have some great sound byte ammunition to use against her: a new poll finds independent voters would prefer to have Charlie Sheen as President over Palin:

We’ve found a lot of brutal poll numbers for Sarah Palin so far in 2011: down in South Dakota, down in South Carolina, down in Arizona, only up by 1 point in Texas, only up by 1 point in Nebraska to name a few. But this has to be the worst- independent voters say they would support Charlie Sheen over Palin for President by a 41/36 margin. Seriously.

So among independents it’s Sheen WINNING! DUH!

Despite her deficit with independents Palin does lead Sheen 49-29 overall. We also tested Barack Obama against Sheen and the President leads 57-24.

And among general voters, it’s Palin over Sheen. It’s Palin WINNING! DUH!

Karl Rove and others (including me) have repeatedly stressed how if the Republicans want to have any hope of winning independent voters, Palin will be a big political anchor around the party’s neck. She is a candidate of the base, by the base, and for the base and has shown little inclination (as some of her Republican critics have also pointed out) to go beyond her base. If Republicans can hold onto their Tea Party component, rope in traditional conservative Republicans and saw off a good chunk of independents they have a shot at the White House. It’s increasingly evident Palin is not the candidate for that.

What’s unsurprising is that partisans of both parties would prefer Sheen over someone of their party as President. SO:

Sheen is one of the most unpopular figures we’ve ever polled on. 10% of Americans rate him favorably to 67% with a negative opinion of him. The only people we’ve ever found worse numbers for are Rod Blagojevich in Illinois (an 8/83 favorability spread), Jesse Jackson Jr. in Illinois (a 10/73 favorability), and Levi Johnston in Alaska (a 6/72 favorability). Sheen’s -57 spread ties what we found for John Edwards in North Carolina the last time we polled him (15/72).

Sheen’s unpopularity is pretty universal across party lines so it says something about the level of polarization in the country right now that Democrats would support him by a 44-24 margin for President over Palin and that Republicans would support him 37-28 over Obama. People may not have any respect for Sheen but they still think he’d be a better alternative than their opposing party’s leading figure.